Richard Farnes, the Music Director of Opera North who led their critically acclaimed production of 'The Turn of the Screw' in 2010, conducts an all-English cast in Britten’s most ingeniously crafted opera, including Andrew Kennedy, Sally Matthews and 11-year old Michael Clayton-Jolly in the role of Miles.

Originally scheduled to be conducted by Sir Colin Davis, Richard Farnes was the natural replacement, himself having been mentored by the late conductor.

In 1932, the 18-year-old Britten heard on the radio ‘a wonderful, impressive but terribly eerie and scary play 'The Turn of the Screw' by Henry James’. Britten’s version of the ghost story, premiered in 1954, is a chamber opera in a prologue and two acts.

The opera tells the story of a Governess and a housekeeper, Mrs Grose, who vow to protect two children, Miles and Flora, from the strange happenings that occur in the grounds of their English country house.

Cast:
- Andrew Kennedy [Prologue, Peter Quint]
- Sally Matthews [Governess]
- Michael Clayton-Jolly [Miles]
- Lucy Hall [Flora]
- Catherine Wyn-Rogers [Mrs Grose]
- Katherine Broderick [Miss Jessel]

Concert Reviews:
"I have never, ever, heard such a coruscating account of the score from any band, or such a massively accurate, sonorous one from the soloists" - Opera-Britannia

"The steely edge to Katherine Broderick’s tone was used to great effect to suggest Miss Jessel’s malevolence. Catherine Wyn-Rogers was a sympathetic, maternal Mrs Grose, Lucy Hall a girlish Flora and Sally Matthews a splendidly focused, anguished Governess whose horror at the unfolding events was palpable. Andrew Kennedy was no less impressive doubling as the Prologue narrator and the sinister Quint. The Miles of the 11-year-old Michael Clayton-Jolly, a chorister in the Chapel Royal, was not only admirable in intonation but also exhibited a musicianship and composure well beyond his years." - ****Evening Standard

"Farnes, the cast and the orchestra were fully aware of the pressure to pull this one off in Sir Colin Davis’ memory. Happily, I think it was a performance of which he would have been proud." - ****bachtrack.com